Aftekdak - Missing You
by Mini Goat
Summary: Sam spends her first Christmas on Atlantis but there's no place like home


**_AN:_**_ Fate series set about four years after Fate. Sam is stationed on Atlantis and misses her family. Especially a particular little moppet._

**Aftekdak - Missing You**

Sam looked around the gate room and frowned a little.

"Colonel Carter." John Sheppard said to her cheerily as he walked by with a rope of greenery looped across his chest.

"John... what's going on?"

"Well," he said thoughtfully, "We got to thinking, the teams and I, that it's awfully close to Christmas and we thought we'd spruce the place up a bit." He grinned. "How's it look?"

Sam looked around and frowned. "Great. It looks… great." She quirked her mouth to the side. "Next time ask, ok?"

"Sure Sam." He nodded affably. "Gotta go before Tayla tries to hang stuff by climbing the support beams instead of using a ladder again." He jogged off.

Sam bit the inside of her lip and walked back to her office and shut the blinds on the view of the gate. She didn't notice John watching her out of the corner of his eye.

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**Three years ago:**

"So what is this… Christmas?" Ronon asked Beckett who was plowing through a bowl of oatmeal.

A group of lab techs was decorating a pine tree in a corner of the break room they were in and Ronon was watching them out of the corner of his eye, utterly mystified.

"Well, yah see lad, Christmas, ooch, Christmas is the most lovely time of the year. Everyone is happy and buys each other gifts and we eat a lot of pudding and cookies and drink ourselves daft with wine and eggnog."

"That about sums it up." John agreed.

"So it's a party?"

"Mostly." John told him.

"A party? Lad, yer birthday is a party, Christmas is a whole month of celebratin'." Carson said grinning.

"I like parties." Ronon told them.

"Ye'll like Christmas then. If we get lucky it might even snow." Carson said with a nod.

Jenn slid onto a seat next to Carson. "What are we talking about?"

"Christmas, lass." Beck told her.

"Ronon asked what it was about." John told her and snagged a grape off her tray.

"Hey!" she said laughing and pulled her tray closer. "Get your own food."

"Ronon ate mine."

"You were playing with it instead of eating." Ronon said around a mouthful of food.

Jenn chuckled and passed her toast to John.

"So guys, what's up?" Rodney said with a grin that made Ronon's eyes roll.

"We've been telling Ronon about Christmas." Jenn told him.

"Did you tell him it's a giant disappointment?" He asked as he plopped down next to John.

"Christmas is lovely McKay. Ignore him Ronon." Carson said as he leaned back and fidgeted with a piece of fruit.

"Easy for you to say. I doubt you've gone many Christmases being grilled by your aunt Mable about why you don't have a date... again." Rodney said.

John smirked. "My aunts gave up on seeing the same girl twice years ago."

"What are they putting on that tree?" Ronon asked

"Looks like spent memory crystals." Caron said with a chuckle.

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**Presently:**

"So what's up with Sam?" Rodney asked semi casually as he sat down to lunch.

"What do you mean?" Jenn asked. She'd seemed fine during the morning briefing.

"I went to ask her about the status on those ZPM's Donovan and Zelenka brought back and she about bit my head off." He whined.

"Well Rodney, it's you, so it could be you were just being irksome." Jenn told him.

"I am highly offended by that comment, I am charming and polite. Sam and I have gotten along for years now."

"Rodney, she still hates your guts." John told him.

"Oh what would you know." McKay countered.

"I know when my boss hates me for starters." John said, amused.

Rodney huffed. "Well I still say she's not herself. Even if she doesn't like me she's usually nice anyway."

"This is true. Perhaps she's just homesick." Jenn suggested.

"Does Sam even get homesick?" John asked surprised.

Rodney looked down at his lap and studiously ignored the question. Thankfully no one expected him to have the answer to that.

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"Rodney…"

"Oh no. You aren't dragging me into the middle of whatever nonsense you have planned."

"Come on Rodney. You talked to her. She misses home."

"And by 'home' you mean her family."

"And by 'family' we mean the General."

"I'm not helping John."

"Why not?" John demanded as they walked down a service corridor.

"Because the whole reason they hide their marriage in the first place is to protect their kid." Rodney looked horrified that he'd said it out loud.

"Wait, they have a _kid_?!"

"And now General O'Neill _is_ going to kill me. It's been nice knowing you John. Be sure to NOT mention you know that ever. To anyone."

"How long have they had a kid?!"

"Er…. I don't know, I don't pay that much attention to that sort of thing."

"Wait, how do you know this and I don't?"

"I had to do some consultation work at Groom Lake while she was there. It was kind of hard not to notice... It was pretty easy to put two and two together about who the father was even though she denied it."

"Why would she deny it?"

"Well, after I pestered her a little too much General O'Neill took me aside and explained the official story to me and that if I ever blew it, he was going to ship me to Guam."

"Why Guam?"

"Have you seen the size of the bugs there?"

"Ok fair point but why is there an official and an unofficial story about it?"

"Because until recently having a kid with the ancient gene just painted a big target that said 'kidnap me' on them?"

"Oh. Yah, well, good reason."

"And now since that was the official story they have to stick with it. Something about being court-martialed probably." Rodney shrugged.

"So Sam's moping because she misses her kid." John said thoughtfully.

"Well, I'm sure she misses the General as well but I'd assume it's mostly missing her kid."

"Does she know you know?"

"You know I don't _think_ she does. I stopped asking questions after she sic'ed her crazy husband on me so she may just have assumed he scared the crap out of me."

"Did he?"

"Have you met the guy? Of course he scares the crap out of me." Rodney said with a self depreciating grin.

"Ok, that's a fair point." John agreed thoughtfully.

"Anyway I'm not helping you. He knows I know therefore anything I do is going to shorten my life considerably. Anyway it's not like we'd be able to talk him into blowing their official story anyway. If he shows up here with a kid everyone here is going to know."

"You're probably right." John said thoughtfully. "But you could send him a coded message in one of your reports."

"I distinctly remember telling you no." Rodney reminded him.

"But you're the only one who would be able to get a message to him without her knowing. You'd need my help though."

"I won't need your help because I'm not doing it."

"But it's Sam, Rodney."

"So?"

"So, it's her first Christmas ever away from home. We got over this stuff three years ago. This is her first year without them."

Rodney sighed.

"You'll do it."

"I'll think about it." He admitted.

John grinned and clapped him on the back. "Good talk Rod." He said jovially and walked away.

"I'm going to die a slow and extremely painful death." Rodney said to himself and headed to his lab.

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"Are you all right Colonel Carter?"

"I'm all right Tayla." Sam said with a shrug.

"You don't seem yourself."

Sam smiled wanly. "It's nothing."

Tayla gave Sam a look that said she could clearly see it was not nothing. "You know, if you need to talk, I'm always here." She was helping Sam record and catalog the latest supplies SA-1 had procured with Tayla's help.

"I appreciate it Tayla. I just miss some people that's all." She said with a sad little shrug. The happy caroling and decorating the city wasn't helping her mood she admitted to herself.

"It must be hard being away from your family."

Sam gave her a wary look.

"I'm sorry, I just assumed as you've had a child."

Sam looked around to make sure they were alone in the temporary storage area. "Tayla, that's not something people generally know and I'd like to keep it that way." Sam frowned. "And how did you know anyway?"

"I shouldn't have just assumed." Tayla said, chagrinned. "Your body shape. Even when you get muscle tone back there are subtle changes that don't go away post-pregnancy."

Sam shook her head. "It's all right. It's just very complicated because of our jobs."

"So you're still with the father then?"

"Oh yah." Sam said grinning. "But we had to get special permission to even get married and had to play it off that he was helping out a friend that got pregnant on accident. Very few people know he's her biological father."

"You had a girl? What's her name?"

"You promise not to talk to anyone about this?"

"Of course." Tayla said with a firm nod

Sam could see the meant it. "Her name is Gracie and she's just turned three years old which I already missed by being here, and now I'm going to miss her first Christmas that she knows what's going on too." Sam said with a sad frown.

"What a pretty name. John has been telling me about Christmas. It must be especially hard with missing out on the first time she understands the party is for her."

"You don't get them back either." Sam said with a sad shrug. "Watching a video isn't the same." She'd missed Gracie's first toddling steps as well when the Ori had kidnapped her.

"I'm sure she misses you. Have you got other family besides your husband?"

Sam chuckled. "In a manner of speaking."

Tayla tilted her head in curiosity.

"I have a brother and his two kids. My other niece's foster parents have pretty much adopted my entire team at this point." Sam said with the first sign of real amusement during their conversation.

"Did your sibling pass?"

"Oh," Sam laughed. "No, it's complicated. She'd not technically my niece. I just call her that because it's simpler than explaining any of that situation." She waved her hand indicating confusion in such a way that if Tayla knew Sam's husband she'd have laughed.

"I understand. Once the relation gets to second or third cousin once removed you stop keeping track."

"More or less." Sam said with a small grin. She wasn't about to explain how ridiculously complicated her home life was. "I think we've got all this stuff. Thanks for your help."

"Any time." Tayla smiled. "You know next time I'm in your quarters, I'll be looking at all your photos to figure out which one is your husband right?"

Sam grinned. "I'd do the same."

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"So why is Sam so crabby?" Ronon asked around a mouthful of sandwich.

"Classified." John said.

"Classified?"

"What John means is it's personal Ronon." Tayla told the large man.

"You know?" John asked her suspiciously.

"I might know a little bit of information on why Sam is down in the dumps." Tayla admitted. Picking at her lunch.

"You plan on telling us or are you just going to make us guess?" Ronon grumped.

"It's not my information to tell and I was told in confidence." She shrugged delicately. "She misses her family."

"Don't we all." John muttered.

"Yes, many of you do, but you've had time to adjust to missing them. It's still fresh for her and it's her first Christmas without them."

John gave her a long look. She returned an innocent and bland one for his pointed stare.

Rodney joined them shortly. "The cook hates me."

"Lemon chicken again Rod?" John asked smiling.

"This is the third time in two weeks. If he doesn't stop it I'm complaining to Sam. I think he's doing it intentionally."

"You did say the roast beef was too salty."

"Well it was. The last thing we all need is high blood pressure."

"The roast beef isn't the only salty thing around here." Ronon said.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Rodney sniffed.

"All right, break it up." John told them pointing his fork at each of them.

"He started it." McKay sulked.

"And I'm finishing it." John said.

Tayla smirked and tried not to chuckle.

"She hasn't been out of her office much." Ronon said in general.

"If it was a lab, I'd say it's work related but she doesn't like sitting in an office any more than General O'Neill does." John observed having known Sam briefly prior to his assignment with the Atlantis expedition.

"Well, she has been waspish at everyone so she might be trying to avoid hurting anyone's feelings. Sam can be really mean sometimes."

"She's only mean to you Rod." John told him.

"That is true. She's only impatient with other people she doesn't like." Tayla said teasingly as she looked around the room. "The greenery looks very nice by the way. Perhaps we should bring back some of the plants that used to be around the city."

"Then we'd just have to water them." Ronon complained.

"You needed a hobby Ronon." John said with a grin.

"I'd rather peel my own skin off with a rusty knife."

"Well that's appetizing." Rodney said turning a little green. "Everyone hush, here she comes."

Sam walked over. "Any room left?" She asked them.

"Take a load off Sam." John said scooting over to make room for her.

"Thanks." She set her tray down and slid into the opening.

An awkward silence ensued at the table. Sam wasn't talkative today and the previous subject was off the table while she was there.

Tayla finally got tired of the guys looking anywhere but at Sam and being stuck for a topic and brought up her last conversation with Sam. "How did the rest of the inventory go?"

"Fine, once Chuck stopped adding locations. Apparently the techs just stuffed crates wherever yesterday unless it was food." Sam huffed.

John chuckled. "I should have warned you about that part. Liz tried for years to get them to put it all in one room with no success."

"It's not funny John. There could have been something perishable in those crates or worse. Bugs." Sam snapped, frowning.

"Ok. You don't need to bite my head off, boss." John told her putting his hands up placatingly.

"Sorry. It just took three times longer than it should have because they refuse to use any kind of system."

"I agree Sam. The techs have been a source of chaos since we got here. You should whip them into shape." Rodney told her with a pump of his arm for emphasis.

John gave him a flat look.

"What? It annoys you too." Rodney defended.

Tayla opted to change the subject before another fight started. "Did you find your ZPMs Rodney?

"Oh, oh yes, they were right where Sam said they would be."

"At least something was." Sam said moodily and picked at her lemon chicken.

John and Rodney exchanged a look. Rodney shook his head minutely which made John frown at him.

Rodney frowned back and bugged his eyes out a little in emphasis.

Tayla kicked both of them under the table before Sam looked back up.

"That reminds me, Zelenka wants to check out M5V-801. I told him you have some other missions lined up first but I put it on the short list." Sam told John.

"The one with the earthquakes?" Rodney asked.

"Got it in one." Sam said with an eye roll.

"Jeeze Sam." John said.

"What?" She said sharply and narrowed her eyes as some of the base occupants walked by laughing and singing a Christmas carol.

"Nothing." He said quickly and shot Rodney another look.

"Well, this has been fun." Sam said in a tone that clearly indicated she wasn't even remotely having fun. She got up and grabbed her tray. "Briefing on M5V-801 at eleven hundred tomorrow."

"Yes ma'am." John muttered.

Once she'd walked away Ronon finally spoke. "Prickly."

"Like a sand spur." John agreed.

Tayla and Ronon looked at him.

"Nasty little weeds that have spiky seeds that hurt like hell when you step on them." John explained.

"Ah." Was Tayla's reply. Ronon went back to eating his sandwich.

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John had stopped by Rodney's lab to try to convince him to send a message to General O'Neill.

"I told you no John. I'm not getting in trouble by sending that kind of message directly to him. We do have to go home some time and he'll kick me into oblivion."

"So, word it in such a way that he's the only one that will know what it means."

"And how do you expect me to do _that_?"

"Well, you could mention the word grace." Tayla said walking in.

"I knew you knew!" John told her. "How did you find out?"

"Sam told me."

"What? She just told you she has a husband and a kid?" Rodney said incredulously.

"Well, perhaps because she knows I won't tell anyone else." Tayla suggested.

"You just told us."

"Did you learn anything you didn't already know?" She said pointedly.

"Er, well, no." Rodney admitted.

"Why grace?" John asked.

"Because General O'Neill will know what it means and figure out the rest of the message even if you are vague."

"What does it mean?" Rodney asked her confused.

"I am not at liberty to say." Tayla said with an amused smile.

"That's helpful." John said dryly.

Tayla chuckled. "No but it is truthful. I'll help you write it so he understands." She offered.

"That might be difficult." Rodney said. "General O'Neill isn't the brightest guy on a good day."

"General O'Neill is usually faking Rodney." Tayla told him pointedly.

"Why would he do that?" Rodney asked her, mystified.

"Have you considered how people look at someone like him if they think he might be smart too?" She suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"General O'Neill perpetuates the illusion that he is a…" Tayla stalled, trying to come up with an adequate expression.

"Meat head?" John suggested.

"Yes, a meat head because a man with his physical skills who is also brilliant is seen as a threat by his superiors."

"But if he's as smart as you say, then he is one. A threat, that is, not a meat head like he pretends to be." Rodney said thoughtfully, thinking back to several conversations that the General had cut him off impatiently and Rodney wondered if the reason he had done so wasn't out of lack of interest but because he actually already understood. Had that been what Sam had seen in him all those years ago? He'd told her that she could do better intellectually but what if General O'Neill was so good at playing dumb that he'd easily fooled Rodney because he saw what he expected to see. "Why would he do that?"

"My guess is he didn't want the responsibility." John suggested, giving Rodney a shut the heck up look.

"Well that makes no sense." Rodney said

"Jack doesn't actually like being in charge." John said with a shrug.

"So now he's Jack?" Rodney asked.

"Well, not on the clock." John hedged.

"You're friends with Sam's husband who happens to be our boss." Rodney accused. "Why am I writing this letter exactly?"

"Video and it's because I'm not supposed to know." John admitted.

"Then how did you? And how is he supposedly your friend but you aren't supposed to know he has a wife and kid?"

"Because General O'Neill isn't the only one who knows how to play dumb so people don't know how smart he is." Tayla said teasingly.

"Shhhh… it's a secret." John stage whispered.

"It is?" Rodney asked surprised.

"Jack would never put Sam in danger like that. If the Goa'uld had known what was going on between them don't you think they would have used that to hurt them both?" John pointed out.

"Well, I suppose there is that." Rodney conceded. "But I still don't get why I have to do this."

"Because you're the only one he knows _knows_ because he told you himself." John reasoned out patiently. "If I did it, you would get in trouble with him for telling me which, I might add, you did." He said pointedly as he fished a lollipop out of his pocket and started unwrapping it.

"Don't you dare eat that thing in here. I don't need your drool all over."

"I do not drool." John told him and pointedly stuck his sucker in his mouth.

Rodney huffed. "I need to put in a requisition anyway. There's no reason I can't do a video to go with it to clarify the requisition request. I've done it before. If he's as smart as you say we should put the message somewhere at the midway point and word it in such a way that he understands but won't get flagged by the security staff."

"So let's get to work. Tayla, what do you suggest?"

"Well… I was thinking…"

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Sam had opened the blinds on her office because technically she had to have a clear view of the gate. Not a single holiday decoration graced her office. She opened her center desk drawer and traced her fingers along the sweet face of her daughter being held by Mary Amos. In case anyone found the photo and asked, she could always play it off that it was a friend and her granddaughter which wasn't entirely a lie. Mary had legally adopted Sammy after all and that made her effectively Sam's sister according to biology, step-mom of a sort which made her grandma. More or less. Thinking about it made her understand why Hank suffered from so many headaches at work.

Either way, Sam was in no mood to have her office stuffed with greenery and tinsel. Where John had found the glittery stuff was beyond her anyway. He'd probably wasted personal money to buy it because she didn't remember a req form crossing her desk for it unless he'd saved it from last year under Liz.

Sam had pointedly made the staff remove the decorations too close to the gate, particularly in her line of vision. She'd spent her share of years away from her family as for a while she was estranged from her dad and in part, her brother. That wasn't really the problem and she was used to long spans of time away from Jack as after they had gotten married she'd been stationed at Groom Lake and Jack had bounced between Washington and Colorado. No, what was bugging her was the mommy blues. She missed her bright silly little girl with her father's absurd sense of humor and riot of light brown curls that felt exactly like her father's hair which she suspected might also curl if it were just as long.

Sam had realized she was out of sorts right away and had hidden in her office as much as she could. She still had to put up with carolers and holly jolly reveling on her way to get meals but paperwork made for a good excuse not to leave the relative safety of her refuge from the holiday spirit.

Chuck's voice announced over the intercom "Unscheduled activation."

Sam dialed the gate room. "Chuck, where's it coming from?"

"Earth, Ma'am"

"Earth?" her voice surprised.

"That's what the dialing computer tells me. Looks like a communication burst Ma'am."

"All right. Let me know if I need to sign anything I guess." She said mystified. She wasn't supposed to get another packet for a week according to the schedule. She hoped it wasn't anything terrible. Stop that, she mentally admonished herself. Everything at home is fine. Jack would physically send someone if something had happened to anyone. The Air Force would physically send someone if something had happened to Jack. As it was just a communication burst it was probably just some crap from the IOA or Jack forwarding whatever nonsense he had to put up with today in Washington.

Sam blew her bangs out of her eyes and started leafing through John's mission reports. He and Rodney were clearly up to something, she could tell by their less than subtle eyeball conversation at lunch. She really hoped she didn't have to pull them aside for a chat. John was a good commander but sometimes he got a little carried away. Kind of reminded her of someone else she knew really. Sam grinned a little at that. Some day John was going to aggravate the hell out of some unsuspecting woman. It would probably be someone smarter than him. She chuckled a little.

Speaking of aggravating, one of the communications in the burst was for her. Looked like a video and text file. It wasn't coded as personal so it must be work stuff.

"Carter, why does Rodney need all this stuff? I'll see what I can do but tell him I don't make any guarantees. It's the government not his personal fairy godmother. There are a couple letters attached, one of them is ah… personal so I suggest you read it in private." He said with a suggestive grin. "Anyway, things are fine here. I'll keep you posted if you need to know anything. O'Neill out." And the recording stopped.

Sam waited on the letters - she'd read those tonight. She thumbed the communication array on her desk. "Rodney, come to my office."

"Er… yes. Right away." Rodney looked at John who was loitering in his lab avoiding work.

"Fine, I'll leave." He said throwing up a hand in defeat.

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"You wanted to see me Sam?" Rodney asked as he knocked on the door frame.

"Take a seat Rodney." Sam told him absently as she put some papers back into a folder.

Rodney sat with a guilty look on his face. I am so busted, he thought to himself.

"Did you put in a requisition for lab equipment?"

"Er, well, yes, you see some of my equipment got damaged in that little flood we had a few weeks ago and I've been able to repair most of it but a couple things need to be replaced or I need a lot more parts than I expected." He hedged nervously.

Sam, used to his odd behavior, ignored the fact that he was lying at least a little bit. Some of it probably got damaged during horse play and he was trying to not get into trouble. "Fine. General O'Neill says he'll do what he can but he's not going to make any guarantees as it's government equipment and he's not, and I quote, 'your personal fairy godmother'." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, that's good, great. Is there anything else Sam?" He asked almost bouncing.

"Tell John to stop horse playing in your lab so you don't have to lie on your next requisition request." She told him, frowning.

"Er, yah, ok, I'll do that." Rodney told her and all but fled from her office.

Sam shook her head. She really needed to have a talk with those two about goofing off all the time. They were as bad as Jack and Daniel when bored.

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"So he said he'd do it?" They were hanging out in a supply room off the main spire.

"Well, he used the password I gave him so I'm assuming he will unless he was just repeating me in which case I won't get my hopes up." Rodney shrugged.

"And you're sure she repeated the message back to you exactly the way he said it?"

"Without seeing the video, yes. It's unlikely Sam would have done anything else and she quoted the code word Tayla suggested."

"All right. I just hope you're right because I don't want to disappoint anyone."

"You didn't tell them, did you?"

"Well…"

"John! If he doesn't show everyone is going to be disappointed or worse, shows up and can't bring anything with him but himself."

"I don't think he'd come if he couldn't bring the kid." John hedged.

"Oh what would you know. Until two days ago you didn't even know he had a kid." Rodney grumped.

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Sam eye rolled at the technicians singing at the top of their lungs and huffed out a sigh. Two more days Sam, and they will stop acting like a bunch of idiots. Just handle it for two more days. She told herself in the gate room. Stackhouse's team was due back from M2R-441 for their preliminary report. Lacking the MALPs SGC had several of, it was quicker to send an exploration team ahead of Sheppard and Atlantis-1.

The gate swirled to life and the intense colonel with dark eyes walked through with his team. "Colonel Carter." He said with a short smile then frowned slightly.

"Go get cleaned up and checked out, meet me in the briefing room when you are ready Stackhouse." She said with a grim smile. The tightness around his eyes suggested all was not well.

An hour later in the briefing room Sam sat with Stackhouse, Yamato, Cadman, and Corrigan. "What have you got for me people?"

"It's been culled." Laura said softly.

Dr. Corrigan nodded. "We didn't enter the village as you told us to avoid interacting with the natives but it's been culled ma'am"

Sam frowned. "Looks like we need to push this one forward on the roster. We probably need to evac the survivors if there are any. Anything else?"

Stackhouse's team shook their heads sadly.

"All right, thank you everyone. As it's only a couple days before the holiday and I'm sure you would like to join in the celebration, your team is on stand down for the next three days."

"Thank you Ma'am." Stackhouse told her gratefully.

"Go stuff yourself with junk food guys." Sam said dismissively as they filed out. After they were gone Sam looked at the images taken and sighed. She hoped those people would be all right for a couple days. Anyone left probably wouldn't talk to them right away if the culling had been in the last twenty four hours. Most of the time they were too afraid to come out for a couple days anyway.

Loud cheerful voices floated into the room and Sam gritted her teeth. If it wouldn't make her look like an ogre she'd send Sheppard out tomorrow to check on those people. He'd go too but she was trying not to have a reputation for being heartless. It wasn't their fault she missed home after all.

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Rodney and John had positioned themselves by the gate. Tayla was covertly looking for Sam.

"Do you think he'll do it?"

"How should I know? The person who would know for sure doesn't even know what's going on." John said with an eyeroll.

Rodney bounced on his heals. "I think he'll do it." He said smugly having forgotten he'd objected to this whole idea in the first place.

John caught Tayla's eye and frowned when she shook her head.

Ronon came up and stood behind Rodney. "So what is this big plan you two have?" he rumbled casually as he shoved a candy cane in his mouth.

"It's a surprise." Rodney said smugly.

"I never would have guessed." He growled in annoyance.

"Be nice." John told him.

"I am being nice." Ronon said.

"Eh…" Rodney told him wiggling his hand in a 'kind of' gesture.

"So who are you waiting for?" Ronon asked, noticing Tayla and John's looks at each other.

"Sam. We're trying to get her to come to the gate room for the party." Rodney admitted.

"I'll get her." Ronon announced gruffly.

"Er, is that really a good idea? You aren't always…" Rodney trailed off under Ronon's glare.

"What Rodney is trying to say," Tayla said as she came up behind Ronon, "Is that you are not always diplomatic Ronon."

"I don't need to be. You want her here, I'll bring her." He said marching off.

"Oh dear." Tayla said to no one in particular.

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Sam looked up to see Ronon glowering with his arms crossed, leaning on her door jamb. "Something I can do for you?" She asked casually, having adjusted to the large man's off-putting behavior.

"Need you in the Gate room." He said thumbing towards the hallway stairs leading down.

"There are no scheduled activations Ronon. I'll come down if something happens that shouldn't."

"They want you there for the party." He supplied.

"That's nice. Tell them I'm busy and I'll be down later if I have time."

"Sam, you're the base commander. You're supposed to act like it."

"I don't remember any rules about entertaining everyone with my presence Ronon." She huffed.

"You're their leader. It's time to socialize."

"I'm really not in the mood Ronon." She said firmly.

"Neither am I." He said lowering his brows.

Sam realized not only would he intractably refuse to leave until she complied, it was likely he'd be a nuisance and she'd get nothing done instead. Sam huffed out a sigh. "An hour and I am not singing."

"Good, neither am I." He said with a grin.

Sam rolled her eyes as she shut off her computer. "I am only doing this under duress."

"How bad could it be? There's food."

"Well, John and Rodney planned most of it so possibly pretty bad."

"All right, good point, but other than the singing it hasn't been the worst party I've been through."

"You attend a lot of parties?" She said with dry amusement.

"I like ones with more alcohol." He admitted.

"Alcohol would help." She agreed.

"I might have some." He said casually but his body language was amused.

Sam shook her head as she turned the corner, steeling herself to put up with this for the allotted time, she plastered a fake smile on her face and walked towards John and Tayla who were laughing about something together.

Rodney looked up, a note of shock on his face. "You did it." He exclaimed.

"I told you I would." Ronon said as though Rodney was stupid and stalked off to find food.

"Well, I honestly didn't think he'd succeed." Rodney said flabbergasted.

"Rod."

"Yes John?"

"Shut up." He said grinning. "Glad you could join us boss. We won't make you give any speeches or anything."

"Thanks John."

Tayla handed her a small plate with some finger foods on it. "I'll go get another. That way you don't have to wander around being talked at." She told Sam with an understanding smile.

"Thanks Tayla. If there's cake, I wouldn't turn it down." She said, smiling softly. As long as she was joining in she might as well have a piece of cake in honor of her husband who was probably feeding their daughter Jello tonight in honor of her mom. Sam frowned a little. She hoped Jack was making it as special as he could. He'd told her they were going back to Colorado for the holiday and spending Christmas with Wil and Mary so the kids could see Gracie. Sammy had hidden her hurt that Jack was staying in Washington while Sam was stationed on Atlantis but Sam knew herself. She was probably drowning her sorrows in taking extra classes on the weekends and bothering Mary for projects to do. Sam had reminded Jack to send the kids updates on a regular basis. Jack had huffed out a dramatic sigh but agreed. She figured he was probably sending Sammy and Jon the same videos he was sending her. Wil and Mary got their own videos which Sam knew because Mary had sent her a glowing thank you for making sure Jack didn't forget about them.

At least the snacks weren't too bad she though as she bit into something that resembled a ham roll.

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She heard it before Chuck announced it. He'd been rotating with a couple other staff members so they could all attend the party for a while without leaving the operations room unoccupied in case of an emergency. In Sam's defense she knew the sound of a gate powering up like she knew her own heart when it came to Jack.

"Unscheduled Activation." A couple guards who had remained armed pointed their weapons at the activated gate.

"Check the ID code Chuck." Sam said on her com device.

"It's Midway Ma'am." He said sounding as mystified as Sam felt.

"All right. Let them through."

Sam's heart leapt in her chest as a tall uniformed General waked through the gate with a grin on his face and a MALP control in his hand. The next thing that came through the gate was a modified MALP sled loaded down with packages wrapped in bright paper and ribbons.

Jack continued walking towards Sam and stopped the sled in the middle of the gate room. He grinned at Sam. "Merry Christmas Atlantis." He announced loudly enough for the entire room to hear him and took off his cover to shove it under his arm and turned towards the still activated gate. A second sled joined the first one through the gate followed by Daniel who was followed by Teal'c who carried a sleeping Gracie on his shoulder.

"Merry Christmas Carter." He said softly into her ear.

"Jack." She breathed so softly only he could hear her. "What is all this?"

"This," He said, "Is Christmas."

"Hey Sam." Daniel said affably and kissed her cheek when he hugged her.

Sam didn't notice John tug Rodney firmly away from the former members of SG-1 or Jack's thank you nod at his two elves.

"Colonel Carter, it is good to see you." Teal'c told her without bowing so as to not wake the sleeping three year old in his arms.

"I don't know what Mary did but that woman is magic. She fell asleep on the way to the Mountain and slept through the entire trip. We may have a problem when it's time to go home tomorrow evening." Jack admitted.

"How?" Sam said baffled.

Jack gave her a lopsided grin. "Some little elves pestered me into it." He said enigmatically. "Excuse me, I need to handle something first." He plopped his cover on her head and went to stand in front of the Gate. "All right, I'm sure you are all wondering what's going on, so here it is." Jack clapped his hands together, warming himself up to talk. "There is a gift for every person stationed on the base. If your family or friends didn't send one, there's one from the SGC. I promise it's not MRE's." Which earned him a chuckle from the assembly.

"Atlantis One will read off your names and pass out your gifts. I have cake to eat." Jack said grinning. "Merry Christmas everyone!"

The room was filled with clapping and mirth at Jack's announcement and someone started playing holiday music softly over the PA as John and Rodney started arguing over who had to pass out gifts to people. Sam caught John's eye and he winked at her. She grinned.

Suddenly Sam found him next to her again. As were Daniel and Teal'c.

"I hear you missed us." Daniel said grinning, knowing darn well who exactly she'd missed.

A mop of sandy hair lifted from Teal'c shoulder. "Uncle Teal'c, where are we?" She said in confusion.

"I told you I was taking you to the North Pole, Sweet Potato." Jack said with a grin. "Tell uncle Teal'c what your Christmas wish was."

"To see mommy." She said with a sleepy frown at her father.

"Turn around." Jack told her.

Gracie turned in Teal'c's arms until her eyes fell on Sam. Her mouth fell into an O of shock for a moment as her eyes went very wide.

"Hey kitten." Sam said softy.

"Mommy!" Gracie breathed in the same delighted way Sam often did when her emotions overwhelmed her.

"Merry Christmas Sweet Potato." Jack told his daughter.

"I missed you mommy." Gracie told her, holding out her arms to Sam.

"I missed you more kitten." Sam told her and hugged her tightly. "Merry Christmas." She looked up at Jack then at Daniel and Teal'c. "I don't have gifts for you guys." She said, her eyebrows puckering.

"You are the gift Carter." Jack told her gruffly and kissed her on her forehead.


End file.
